Referral Rock offers "almost done for you programs" to all paying customers. Get in touch and we'll setup your program together.
👋 Welcome to Referral Rock
We're excited to help you build and launch your first referral or affiliate program. This guide includes all the steps needed to get started.
It is not an exhaustive list of everything you can and should do. We’ll cover scaling and optimizing your program in other articles.
Some steps may require help from other team members. You can add team members under Settings > Team Management or learn more here.
Understanding the Audience
The best referral programs resonate with all parties involved, understand motivations, sharing psychology, and the need to cut through the noise to grab attention. To create an effective referral program is crucial to understand these three key groups:
The business - company running the referral program
The member - the happy customer or affiliate sharing the business
The referral - the friend or new lead being referred to the business for the first time
Design Rewards & Payouts
Rewards are the backbone of every referral program and must be compelling and relevant to your audience. They should be designed before any copy, images, messaging, or promotion work.
Here are 6 rules for effective reward design:
Always include a reward for the referral
Account perks are ideal rewards for the member
Monetary rewards can also work for the member
Set meaningful amounts for both reward recipients (member and referral)
Creative structures can increase the appeal if reward amounts aren't meaningful
Consider rewards unique to the business
Additional Resources:
Setup Reward Rules to learn how to create reward structures
Common Reward Structures for reward ideas
Payouts Explained to setup reward payouts
Program Editor Explained for an overview of how to edit your program
Steps to design rewards & payouts:
Referral Rock provides tailored reward recommendations (for paying customers)
⬜ Add Referral Reward: set the referral offer (only one reward rule)
⬜ Add Member Rewards: set the member offer (multiple reward rules available)
⬜ Configure Payouts: setup how your rewards will be distributed
Customize Messaging & Assets
Messaging is how you get people to pay attention and take action. After designing your rewards, the next step is to write great messaging (copywriting) that pulls people in and makes them want to engage with your program.
The best messaging speaks to the targeted audience and leads with “what’s in it for them.”
Keep messaging simple and clear
Lead with benefits and rewards
Have a strong hook to grab attention
Include clear calls-to-action (CTAs)
Personalize content when possible
Additional Resources:
Customize the Sharing Experience to set what and how your members share
Member Portal Explained to create the member pages
Set the Referral Destination to configure the referral experience
Referral Banner adds a banner (pop-up notification) when referrals visit your website
Program Editor Explained for an overview of how to edit your program
Messaging and Brand Assets for text copy and imagery best practices
Steps to customize messaging and assets:
Referral Rock writes initial messaging and provides copy/design recommendations
(for paying customers)
⬜ Design the share experience: widget style, share message, & email messages
⬜ Update member portal: both the program landing page & dashboard
⬜ Create referral experience: either a Personal Referral Page (better conversion with personal message to friend) or Your Website
Setup Referral Tracking
You'll need to install the Referral.js SDK to track the full lifecycle of a referral's web activity and to capture referral conversion via your website. This step is required if referrals are captured on your website. Optional when using referral page form but provides additional on-site analytics.
Referral tracking consists of two events:
Referral Visit - web visits across the referral lifecycle even before someone converts into a referral (includes number of visits, pages visited, channel, etc.)
Referral Conversion - capture when a referral converts to a customer or lead (this is where an unidentified referral first completes a form on your website or app)
Additional Resources:
Referral.js SDK instructions for adding the script to your website
Google Tag Manager instructions for installing the Referral.js SDK with GTM
Referral Tracking Lifecycle for integration doc on all tracking
Steps to setup referral tracking:
⬜ Check Domain Settings: Any changes to the domain after you install the SDK will require deletion and reinstallation of the SDK
⬜ Install SDK: Access your unique SDK script (usually installed with your web hosting provider’s settings, via Google Tag Manager, or manually by a developer)
⬜ Request Technical Assistance: select “Conversion Tracking” to get help from our integration team
Update Referrals (if required)
Once referrals are captured, you may wish to update them based on changes in your existing systems. You can update any data associated with the referral but the most commonly ones are:
Update referral statuses (pending, qualified, approved) to match your sales process to trigger when rewards are earned
Update the referral amount to match the purchase amount for analysis or to offer percentage-based rewards
Additional Resources:
Integration Docs for an overview of all integrations
Referral Statuses Explained for details on referral statuses
Import for instructions on importing referrals
HubSpot and Salesforce for native integrations to update referrals
Zapier and Referral Update Zapier Example for other options
POST api/referral/update endpoint and API Keys for more advanced options
Steps to update referrals:
⬜ Review Integrations and Update Docs: explore differing integration options (Import, HubSpot, Salesforce, Zapier/API) based on your systems
⬜ Request Technical Assistance: select “Referral Activity Update” to get help from our integration team (if needed)
Finalize Promotion
Lack of awareness is the #1 reason referral programs fail. If no one knows your program exists, they'll never share it. Create a promotion plan to launch your program:
Campaigns: outreach emails announcing your program
Access Points: where people can find and access your program
Notifications: referral program event-based emails (in Referral Rock)
Promoters: train your team (i.e., sales reps, service reps, employees) and external partners that recruit members
Here are the most common access points:
Marketing Website (banners, footers, site navigation, CTA buttons, etc.)
Email newsletters (banner, footer, etc.)
In-app (portal or behind a login)
Checkout pages
Mobile app
Account notifications
Transactional emails
Email signatures
In-store signage
Printed material (business cards, postcards, etc.)
Additional Resources:
Promotion Best Practices for recommendations on promoting your program
Messaging and Brand Assets for text copy and imagery best practices
One Click Access Explained for how to access without registering
Steps to finalize promotion:
⬜ Create Program Links: build access links to promote your program (used in emails and access point)
⬜ Design Launch Emails: initial email (and reminders) introducing your program (Referral Rock writes initial emails for paying customers)
⬜ Add Access Points: maximize the number of places people see your program
Launch Program
Before launching, it is important to test the entire member and referral journey to confirm that everything is working as expected. You will want to test:
How members join and share
What referrals see when clicking a member link
If referrals are being captured and added to Referral Rock
If rewards are created based on the correct action
If you have any concerns about launching then consider sending the launch email to a smaller subset of users at first to make sure everything works as expected.
Additional Resources:
Testing and troubleshooting guide for steps to test your program
Steps to launch program:
⬜ Check Domain Settings: used for the share links and the referral.js (make sure this looks good as hard to change later)
⬜ Request Prelaunch Audit: select “Prelaunch Audit” to our team will review your program to make sure everything is in order and follows best practice
⬜ Launch your Program: send the launch email and make sure all your access points are live
Key Resources
Support Center 📖
We have all our help articles like this one, FAQs, how-tos, and best practices all in one place.
Integration Docs 🎓
Check out our comprehensive guides for connecting your referral program to other software such as your website, email marketing system, and customer data platforms.
Chat with support 🗣️
If you'd like some extra assistance with your setup, just reach out via chat to our support team. We're always ready to help.